I see so many young people stopped in their tracks, unable to raise the money to climb out of poverty. I've met kids with talents for computers, kids stuck in low level health care jobs who would, if they could afford it, become engineers, nurses, technicians, even doctors. When I graduated from high school, UMass cost $100 a semester. When I went to what is now UMass Dartmouth, it went up to $600 a year, and I was given a $900 Pell Grant. Now kids, who normally would be starting families and looking for a house to buy, are drowning in debt.

Denmark has free college tuition. So does France. In those countries a higher education is a right. People are given the chance to be anything they want. They're even given the opportunity to fail, to try a career path that doesn't work for them, without blowing tens of thousands of dollars. We can afford this in the USA.

We just increased our military budget by $80 billion dollars a year. For what? So we can continue to wreck countries all over the world? That's enough money to pay for free public college tuition for every one who wants to go. Where are our priorities? Even Elizabeth Warren voted for this shameful increase. Subsidizing our young peoples' college educations means paying for the scientists, doctors, engineers and teachers of the future, who will make this a better, stronger, more educated country. I'd say, it's a far better investment than airplanes and bombs used to devastate the lives of our enemies du jour. In today's world would I be stuck working at a big box store, not earning enough for a house or for a means to support myself in my old age? I'm so thankful I grew up at a time when our government still cared about ordinary people. Charlotte Burns, Palmer